Victor Meldrew

We realised that our kids pasports had expired 10 days before we were due to go back to the UK. We applied by post and received a rejection letter after 5 days stating that the photos were not clear enough. After making a phone call to the British Embassy, we had new photos done in the local photographers shop and I took them with the application to Paris. The lady in the embassy said to me that approx 60% of all applications are now rejected due to photos not being of good quality as it is a computer made desision. As I waited for her to process the applications onto her PC, she informed me that the embassy now has to send all applications electronically to the UK where they are processed and that I would have to return at 4pm but there was no guarantee that they would be ready. All the embassy are now is a post box so to speak. Hope this is of assistance Regards Victor

Does it depend on which department you are in? Here in 37 we applied for permission on two seperate buildings under one application, this was passed and about two months after the consent was given we received a bill from the Tresor Public for Euros 2600 and odd. Yes two thousand six hundred and odd.  This equated to approx Euros 53.00 per square metre, but was payable in two instalments, one 18 months after the issue of the bill and the second 18 months after the 1st instalment. Hope this is of assistance. Regards Victor

I have a pile of approx 20 large quoin stones that are in need of cleaning if you are interested, these could then be cut to size if necessary with a stone saw which can be bought from a diy store. Regards Victor  

It depends on wether the gite is attached to the house or a seperate unit as ours was. Also how is it advertised with the estate agents? either as say a three bed house and two bed gite or if it is attached a five bed house. The latter would command less money than an up and running gite business.  Victor 

Why? Surely it is far cheaper to pay for the private health insurance than it is to have to pay the set up costs/cotisations/accountants fees etc. Victor

The bad news is that, 1, when you bought the property, the value of the barn was not individual but part of the "global" price. This would now be an individual price and as such would show a large profit. 2, If you have a house on the same site as we did, then that is classed as maison principal and the "gite" is maison secondaire. I know, it could only happen here in France. The good news is that, Capital gaines is only paid on profit, but how do you value something that previously had no or very little value. You take a rough estimate and hope that it does not equate to too much in tax. Victor   

We have been there and done it and as they say read the book, got the t-shirt and am now making the movie. We sold our property having converted a barn into a gite and obtained planning for several other gites on the same site. When we sold, we had a meeting with the estate agent, the notaire and the purchaser to sign the comp de vente, at this point we were told by the agent that we would have to pay TVA at 19.60% on the value of the gite (less any TVA reclaimable from receipts for work or materials which we could supply) as it was classed as a new build. The property was divided up into 3 parts, the main house, the gite and the remaining buildings.  In the several months that followed, we were given the amount in writing by the notaire that we would have to pay in tax for the TVA on the gite only, which we accepted. However on that day of signing the Act, we were informed by the notaire in front of our purchasers and the agent that we would also have to pay capital gaines tax (only on the gite, even though it was still part of the same overall property)  as we had not had the property for MORE than 5 years, nothing on this front had been spoken of previously . The net result was that we ended up very much out of pocket and there was nothing we could do about it as we had agreed to the sale when signing the comp de vente. If you do wish to sell, make sure you are advised on both TVA and Capital gaines by your notaire in writing and do not get caught as we were by so called estate agents who just seem to tell you what they want you to hear so that they can get a sale. Hope this is of assistance. Regards Victor   

The French tax man can and will freeze your bank account if you do not pay any of your tax bills.  i.e.  If you do not pay your bills by their due date then a 10% charge is automatically added, if the bill then still remains unpaid your bank accounts will be frozen until you pay, if no funds are available in your account, then the account will remain frozen until it becomes in credit and then the tax will take what he is owed before unfreezing the account. Victor   

With regards to the cost of an Audit, I am afraid that I do not have an answer as our accountant did the year end account as part of the package, as she also deals with the accounts for my business. In respect of running cost, so far in 20 months we have not incurred any. Hope this is of assistance. Victor

We had our SCI set up by our notaire, it took approx 1 month as it has to be posted in the local newspapers and cost approx Euros 1500. Once he had explained the details to us, all we had to do was to sign the documentation. Hope this is of assistance Victor 

There is a property not far from us that has foriegn workers being used to do the renovations, the property has been raided several times by the gendarmes and other officials looking for illegal workers. However each time they have walked away "empty handed" as the workers are registered with a UK company and are paid in the UK. From what you have said this seems to be the same thing, but if it were me I would seek legal advice. Victor  

If you are refering to windscreens then Autoglass have a branches here in France who will repair stone chips, but you might have to go to one of their depots. I saw a promo several months back in one of the supermarket car parks offering a free service. However if you are refering to bodywork then I would have thought that you might as well look for a needle in a haystack as the French just do not seem to bother about the condition of thier cars, they just run them into the ground.   Victor   

Wooly, would you be so happy to use a gardener to replace roof tiles only to find that after he had finished and it rained, that there was more damage to your roof than he actually put right? Or indeed that you used him as an electrician and his bad work caused a fire and burnt you house down. Victor

I quite agree with what Aly is saying, as a registered artisan I not only have to be registered (for which I had to pay for) , I also have to pay my cotisations and have insurance to cover both third party liability and decennal should anything go wrong. Someone working on the black does not have to pay these or have insurance and should anything go wrong just walks away and says tough luck mate!!! I have several times this year had to put right what "unqualified tradesmen" have done. One job was an electrical installation where on  numerous circuits different coloured wires had been joined together inside of gaines and had not even been taped and all nuteral wires had been put in using black cables. The clients have had to pay for a job twice but the first persons work had to be complety ripped out as there was a probable chance of either a fire or maybe even a death.      Victor 

Are you attempting to do a formal rental agreement or just asking if you can live in the property prior to completion of the sale? The vendor may be a little worried due to the time of year, there is a law here in France that says you cannot evict a person between the 15th October and a date in the spring (not sure of exact date). Therefore should anything go wrong with the sale you would be able to stay in the property until spring and there is nothing the vendor could do about it. Try and bargin direct with them and not through the notaire. Regards Victor    

Unless you notified them by recorded delivery letter of your change of address, they may well send the bill to your old address. But to make matters worse, they will still add a 10% penalty if payment is not made on time. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this is from experience. Regards Victor 

The dampness on the walls is the symtom, have you worked out the cause? Is there a gutter and downpipes to take away rain water? if not then this could be part of your problem.  I did a job on a property some while ago and the lack of guttering was the problem as the rain water was passing under the outside walls and being picked up be the central internal wall.  Hope the advice helps. Victor

Throw them away, if you try to use them you may well be looking at the cost of the tiles as well as the colle, once it goes hard then don't bother with it. Victor  

This was my understanding from when I did the stage at the CdM, however when you read some of the items on the threads on the forum you get a little confused. From the stage I also was told that at the end of the second year, you will have to either pay a top up between the fixed cotisations charged in the first year and the amount of cotisations actually due which is calculated on profit, or if profit or indeed loss is not enough to cover the fixed cotisations, then a refund will be given. Victor  

Are you saying that they will look to recover cotisations for any period after 1st January (i.e. on basically what has not been earnt), then view these payments as arrears which then incur interest, if you start your business at any point after 1st January? Victor  

Even if you did manage to get registered here in France as a plumber, to be legal you will need at least third party liability insurance. I my experience it seems that nearly all insurance companies here want to see proof of qualifications and do not just take your word that you are what you are saying you are. Victor   

I think that confirms my thoughts, so the best time to start a business must therefore be as late in the year as possible. Victor

Charles, I wonder if you know an answer to this? Would cotisations in the third year be based on BIC which was accounted for the the first fiscal year or the first total year of  business? I.E if you set up a business in January then by the end of the tax year you would have 12 months accounts, but if you set up later in the year, say March, then you would only have 9 months. Thanks in advance Victor        

We had a new boiler installed last year and had the same problem regarding the programmer. (it would appear that French plumbers do not know that people do not want their heating on all of the time nor do not want to regulate it manualy. We bought a Legrand in line timer which fits into the fuseboard from Leroy Merlin for approx Euros 90 which sets its self automatically, so you do not need to reset it if you have a power cut or indeed when the clocks go back or forward, it works perfectly and was very easy to install. Hope this is of assistance. Victor   

My understanding is as follows: If you live in a country for more than 183 days a year then that is your counrty of residence, and therefore is deemed to be where you pay your taxes. However, we have a friend here who has an accountancy business in the UK and returns there twice a month for two days at a time. When he went to the impots here to register for tax, they said that as far as they were concerned if his business was still in the UK then that was where he should pay his taxes. Is this just a case of we cannot be bothered, so go away any bother someone else? Victor